Sajid Javid to face MPs over crisis in UK steel industry

Business secretary to appear at business select committee on Thursday with Tata chief executive and union leaders

The business secretary, Sajid Javid, is to be questioned by MPs about the crisis in the steel industry and the government’s efforts to save thousands of jobs.

He will appear before the business select committee on Thursday as efforts continue to find a buyer for Tata Steel’s UK assets.

Bimlendra Jha, the chief executive of Tata, Gareth Stace of trade group UK Steel, and Roy Rickhuss, the general secretary of the Community union, will also appear before the committee.

Other witnesses will include Marc Meyohas of Greybull Capital, which is buying Tata’s plant at Scunthorpe.

David Cameron, visited the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot, south Wales, on Tuesday to assure workers, unions and bosses of the government’s commitment to support the future of steel-making at the plant.

Unions welcomed the recent offer of state support for potential buyers, but stressed that any action must cover plants across the whole country and not just in Wales.

Rickhuss said the prime minister had “looked proud steelworkers in the eye and promised to do all he could to protect their jobs”, and said his union would “hold him at his word”.